“We’re told that to be great is to be bold, and to be happy is to be sociable. Our society disfavors shy and introverted traits. One way we manifest this bias is by encouraging perfectly healthy shy people to see themselves as ill or weird. Many adults work for organizations that now assign work in teams, in offices without walls, for supervisors who value ‘people skills’ above all. As a society, we prefer action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. Studies show that we rank fast and frequent talkers as more competent, likable and even smarter than slow ones.” – Susan Cain

“Shyness and introversion — or more precisely, the careful, sensitive temperament from which both often spring — are not just normal. They are valuable. And they may be essential to the survival of our species. Shyness and introversion are not the same thing. Shy people fear negative judgment; introverts simply prefer quiet, minimally stimulating environments. But shyness and introversion share an undervalued status in a world that prizes extroversion. ” – Susan Cain

So why are we taking ‘social medicines’? Social pressure to talk like a funny, charming extrovert? Not being okay with ourselves as quiet and awkward, because society says so? If people only like you when you’re ‘drunk you’, is that what you really want?

‘Social medicine’ can come in many forms – alcohol being the main one, but also prescribed anti-anxiety type drugs, marijuana, and many other illegal drugs. The problem with that is, it’s escaping reality, escaping yourself, potentially dangerous to health/deadly, and it creates a crutch to lean on which can lead to addiction. Acceptance and love from within allows you to use these things for fun and be in control of them, so I’m going to work on achieving that!

Just one more great quote:

“The act of treating shyness as an illness obscures the value of that temperament. Ridding people of social unease need not involve pathologizing their fundamental nature, but rather urging them to use its gifts.“ – Susan Cain